Special Service and Features
A Silent Revolution by the youth in tribal areas of Wayanad
Wayanad district is one of the least Covid affected districts in Kerala. Lesser population may be said as a reason for it, but being a district which shares border with Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and having number of parallel ways through forest to reach other states, Wayanad is of course a vulnerable area as far as a pandemic is concerned. But till now this district withstood all the threats despite having large number of tribal population. This was made possible due to a silent revolution happening among the tribes in the district. A group of committed young social workers are working in the tribal area for the last six years. Their tireless awareness programmes among the tribes did magic in many ways.
Earlier, a large number of tribes were not even aware about various government welfare programmes. Even the ration wasn't reaching them properly. As they are not aware about their own rights, nobody protested against many atrocities against them. In this circumstances Tribal department appointed a group of young Committed Social Workers to work among the tribes for their upliftment. That was an experiment 6 years back. Now after 6 years during this COVID season, the effort of these youth are evident. Although they are not government servants, they work tirelessly in coordination with various govt. departments like Field Outreach Bureau, National Health Mission, Nehru Yuvakendra and various NGOs to bring development in the tribal areas.
Wayanad has 15 active Committed Social Workers at present. They are with the tribes all the time enquiring and understanding about their needs and grievances. Most of the social workers are from the tribal community itself with a qualification of minimum post-graduation. They find out the grievances and bring the authorities attention to the same. They also organize various awareness classes and camps to empower the tribes. Like this, the tribes are now fully aware about their rights and most of them are ready to act like a mainstream citizen. Many NGOs are providing various help to this community with the help of these committed social workers. Hence very poor from the community are even getting new houses as well.
Various government welfare programmes during this COVID period like PMGKY, Ujjwala Yojana etc. reached the tribes on time. Financial aid from banks also got good responses from the community. It is because the tribes are now aware about many technicalities to achieve the benefits. Or rather we can say that the young brigade working among the tribes are vigilant enough not to lose any opportunities of the tribes.
Manoj Kumar A. is one of the social workers who started working among the tribes from 2013 onwards. He reached Wayanad as a teacher. Being an Anthropology PG holder Manoj says that the situation of the tribes in Wayanad was very poor than he read in books. The reality made him think about his duty and be a full time social worker among the tribes. At present, Manoj says, “the tribes in Wayanad are empowered in many ways. Now they know about their rights, many of them are ready to study as long as they wish. Govt. is providing enough resources and we make sure that everything reaches them”.
During the pandemic time, tribes were mature enough to obey all the govt. advices. They are ready to act like a mainstream citizen. Although there are miles to go for the all round development of the community, it is evident that the youth is making a revolution in the tribal areas. The results are now coming out.